December 22, 2006

Black Eye For Black Hats After Tehran Hate FestJewish WeekLarry Cohler-Esses - Editor At Large Even anti-Zionist Orthodox groups slamming Neturei Karta following Holocaust-denial event.While Duvid Feldman was attending a conference in Tehran last week that questioned the reality of the Holocaust, back home in Monsey, his 10 children were “suffering” at the hands of other ultra-Orthodox children thanks to “foolish” media coverage of the event, his wife said Tuesday.

In Manchester, England, Aharon Cohen, another conference attendee, returned home to find his house besieged by other, mostly Orthodox Jews outraged by his participation in the same gathering.

Meanwhile, as of last Sunday, Rabbi Moishe Arye Friedman was still in Tehran, afraid to return home at all. He feared that Austria, his home country, might prosecute him for attending the conference under a law that makes it a crime to deny the Holocaust, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The Hareidi Badatz Court issued a statement saying, “We strongly denounce the participation of people calling themselves hareidi religious Jews, who joined Jew-hating gentiles … to commit an awful desecration of G-d throughout the world.”

The seven-member delegation to the two-day Iranian conference was photographed hugging and kissing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly threatened to “wipe Israel off the map.”

The same group had attended the funeral of chief terrorist and former Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat. Later documents showed that they have also been funded by Palestinian Authority terrorist organizations.

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger called for a cherem (excommunication from the Jewish community) of the group last week. He was quickly joined by the leadership of the Eida Haredit, an anti-Zionist Jerusalem-based council of Hassidic courts and other hareidi religious groups, including the Neturei Karta, that was equally harsh in its response to the group’s actions.

In a sharply-worded editorial published Thursday, the Ha’Eida newspaper said, “That tiny group of wierdos is liable to incite hatred against hareidim.”

Editor Shmuel Popenheim wrote in his article, “Those people’s distorted anti-Zionist zealotry, which is sanctified in their eyes above and beyond the opinion of our Torah sages, brought them to that conference.”

The Satmar Chassidic sect also quickly distanced itself from the group, which according to the Haaretz news service was comprised of American and West European members of the virulently anti-Zionist Neturei Karta and Satmar Chassidic groups.

The Satmar Chassidic Court issued a statement last Thursday calling on Jews “to keep away from them and condemn their actions,” an order tantamount to placing the men in cherem, similar to the call by Rabbi Metzger on Thursday.

The participation of the Neturei Karta members at the conference organized and led by Ahmadinejad was “act of madness,” said the Satmar statement, adding that the group had “trampled on the memory of their ancestors and people. They embraced the disciplines and followers of their murderers."

Israel Hirsch, one of the Neturei Karta participants of the conference, said his group “shares a common platform with Ahmadinejad when it comes to the so-called myth the Zionist movement created around the Holocaust.” A resident of Jerusalem’s Mea She'arim neighborhood, he said he "wanted to make it clear in Tehran that Zionism uses the Holocaust as an excuse for the existence of the Zionist state in the Land of Israel.”

Hirsch went on to say that the Iranian claim is logical. “They aren’t saying that there wasn’t a Holocaust,” he insisted. “But who perpetrated the Holocaust? The Nazis, the Germans. So they should at least pay compensation to the Jewish nation and establish a Jewish state within Germany and not within the land of Israel, which belongs to the Palestinians.”

This same group kissed and hugged Ahmadinejad when he appeared in New York to attend the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in September. They also exhorted Jews to pray for a Hizbullah victory during the second war with Lebanon after two IDF reservists were captured by the terror organization in a cross-border raid this summer.

The ruling was signed by Badatz chairman Rabbi Tuvia Weiss and other rabbinic judges and distributed in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

December 15, 2006

A special bracha to those who take the time to read this blog. Thank you for sticking with me.

This site was dedicated on Chanukkah and it continues to grow. This is the time of re-dedication and may we all me mechazik to grow and eventually gaze upon our Holy Temple, rebuilt in Jerusalem.

Remember the true meaning of Chanukkah: how a small band of Jews, led by a noble family of Kohanim defeated the greatest army in world. Though Greek style, language and custom were considered the "in thing," the new and cool, the wave of the future, our ancestors rejected it and stayed true to Judaism and G-d's Holy Torah.

Remember this:

There is no more Greek Empire. There is Judaism.There is no more Roman Empire. There is Judaism.There is no more Babylonian Empire. There is Judaism.There is no more Assyrian Empire. There is Judaism.There is no more Spanish Empire. There is Judaism.There is no more Nazi Reich. There is Judaism.There is no more Soviet Union. There is Judaism.

The meaning of Chanukkah is to stand firm in Torah and Yiddishkeit. Don't compete with Christians this season. Don't demand "seasons greetings" and try and connect Chanukkah with Christmas. This is the antithesis of our Holiday.

Stay true to your G-d, your Heritage, your People. You are the Children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

December 14, 2006

Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger and the Save the Nation and Land rabbinic organization have called for members of the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect to be excommunicated.

The unusal calls follow the visit to Iran by a group of senior officials of the small sect to take part in a conference aiming to present evidence that the Holocaust never took place. Photographs of the hareidi-looking Jews happily embracing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been widely circulated in many countries.

Chief Rabbi Metzger called on all rabbis and communities in Israel and around the world to honor the memory of the Holocaust victims by adhering to the cherem call against the Neturei Karta members.

Rabbis of the Save the Nation and Land also made a similar call to "shun those who visited Iran, and they may not take part in communal events." The organization plans to place ads in the religious press, with the pictures and addresses of the men to be excommunicated.

The organization issued this statement: "While the entire world is shocked at the provocative threats to destroy the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel, Jews dressed as hareidim come to identify and show solidarity with the leader of Iran, may his name be erased. Aside from the terrible desecration of G-d's Name before the whole world, this is also aid and cooperation for the plans of enemies of Israel to carry out another Holocaust, may G-d save us, upon millions of Jews. These despicable people must be excommunicated, and every Jew is forbidden to have contact with them and certainly not to include them in prayers and the like."

Rabbi Metzger said in his statement to Jewish leaders around the globe, “They [those who embraced Ahmadinajad] betrayed the Jewish people and their heritage and particularly disgraced and desecrated the memory of the Holocaust. With their shameful behavior, they tried to stain the Jewish people, who shy away from this low conduct.”

Former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, a child Holocaust survivor who is currently the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, also condemned the Neturei Karta group. "It is something completely insane," he said flatly. “Is it conceivable that any Jew, for whatever reason, would support a Holocaust denier in a generation when people with numbers tattooed on their arms are still among us? It is an insanity that has no justification and no explanation.”

The hareidi religious Eida Hareidit, an anti-Zionist Jerusalem-based council of Hassidic courts and other hareidi religious groups - including the Neturei Karta - was equally harsh in its response to the group’s actions.

In a sharply-worded editorial published Thursday, the Ha’Eida newspaper said, “That tiny group of wierdos is liable to incite hatred against hareidim.”

Editor Shmuel Popenheim wrote in his piece, “Those people’s distorted anti-Zionist zealotry, which is sanctified in their eyes above and beyond the opinion of our Torah sages, brought them to that conference.” He stopped short of endorsing the call for a cherem on the group, and estimated there were no more than ten people in all of Israel who supported the group’s actions and perhaps some 25 others worldwide.

In 2002, an American umbrella hareidi-religious group comprised of Satmar, Bobov, Belz, Vizhnitz, Munkacz, Kiryas Joel, Monroe, and other anti-Zionist communities, issued a statement sharply condemning those who openly sympathized with the PLO.

Israel Hirsch, one of the Neturei Karta participants of the conference, said his group “shares a common platform with Ahmadinejad when it comes to the so-called myth the Zionist movement created around the Holocaust.” A resident of Jerusalem’s Meah She'arim neighborhood, he said he "wanted to make it clear in Teheran that Zionism uses the Holocaust as an excuse for the existence of the Zionist state in the Land of Israel.”

Hirsch went on to say that the Iranian claim is logical. “They aren’t saying that there wasn’t a Holocaust,” he insisted. “But who perpetrated the Holocaust? The Nazis, the Germans. So they should at least pay compensation to the Jewish nation and establish a Jewish state within Germany and not within the land of Israel, which belongs to the Palestinians.”

This same group kissed and hugged Ahmadinejad when he appeared in New York to attend the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in September. They also exhorted Jews to pray for a Hizbullah victory during the second war with Lebanon after two IDF reservists were captured by the terror organization in a cross-border raid this summer.

They attended the funeral of former Palestine Liberation Organization chairman and chief terrorist Yasser Arafat, and have been funded by Palestinian Authority terrorist organizations.

Documents discosed by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center and the Center for Special Studies (CSS) reveal that Arafat paid more than $50,000 to Hirsch, considered the “foreign minister” of the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect.

CSS stated that the documents uncovered during Operation Defense Shield carried out in Jenin by the IDF in April 2002 showed that Arafat paid $25,000 and $30,000 in January and February of that year for “expenses for activities.” The investigators noted that Neturei Karta frequently supported Arafat and served as a propaganda tool for him.

Me: The fight is not over. Please sign the petition and forward it to everyone you know.

December 11, 2006

Look who was at the "Holocaust Conference" in Tehran deciding whether or not the Nazis killed 6,000,000 Jews.

B'nei Satan.

Their true self-hating, Uncle Tom, Erev Rav agenda is finally clear: they do not just oppose Zionism. The oppose Judaism and the Jewish Nation.Since they embrace our enemies, they must be counted among our enemies.

I call on all Orthodox Batei Din, Organizations and Yeshivos to unequivocally place these enemies of G-d into Cherem immediately or reaffirm their ban.

December 08, 2006

December 06, 2006

The following is taken from The Mesha Stone discovered intact in 1868 (subsequently broken by Arabs and in 1873) then taken to the Louvre. Bolding is mine.

According to Pritchard: "The date of the Mesha Stone is roughly fixed by the reference to Mesha, king of Moab, in II Kings 3:4, after 849 B.C. However, since the contents of the stela point to a date toward the end of the king’s reign, it seems probable that it should be placedbetween 840 and 820, perhaps about 830 B.C. in round numbers."

The Ancient Near East - Volume I [ed. James B. Pritchard]

I (am) Mesha, son of Chemosh-[ ... ], king of Moab, the Dibonite—my father (had) reigned over Moab thirty years, and I reigned after my father,—(who) made this high place for Chemosh in Qarhoh [ . . .] because he saved me from all the kings and caused me to triumph over all my adversaries.

As for Omri, king of Israel, he humbled Moab many years (lit., days), for Chemosh was angry at his land. And his son followed him and he also said, “I will humble Moab.” In my time he spoke (thus), but I have triumphed over him and over his house, while Israel hath perished for ever! (Now) Omri had occupied the land of Medeba, and (Israel) had dwelt there in his time and half the time of his son (Ahab), forty years; but Chemosh dwelt there in my time.And I built Baal-meon, making a reservoir in it, and I built Qaryaten. Now the men of Gad had always dwelt in the land of Ataroth, and the king of Israel had built Ataroth for them, but I fought against the town and took it and slew all the people of the town as satiation (intoxication) for Chemosh and Moab.

And I brought back from there Arel (or Oriel), its chieftain, dragging him before Chemosh in Kerioth, and I settled there men of Sharon and men of Maharith. And Chemosh said to me, “Go, take Nebo from Israel!” So I went by night and fought against it from the break of dawn until noon, taking it and slaying all, seven thousand men, boys, women, girls and maid-servants, for I had devoted them to destruction for (the god) Ashtar-Chemosh. And I took from there the [...] of Y-H-V-H, dragging them before Chemosh.

And the king of Israel had built Jahaz, and he dwelt there while he was fighting against me, but Chemosh drove him out before me. And I took from Moab two hundred men, all first class (warriors), and set them against Jahaz and took it in order to attach it to (the district of) Dibon.

RAYMOND IBRAHIM is a research librarian at the Library of Congress. His book, "The Al Qaeda Reader," translations of religious texts and propaganda, will be published in April.

IN THE DAYS before Pope Benedict XVI's visit last Thursday to the Hagia Sophia complex in Istanbul, Muslims and Turks expressed fear, apprehension and rage. "The risk," according to Turkey's independent newspaper Vatan, "is that Benedict will send Turkey's Muslims and much of the Islamic world into paroxysms of fury if there is any perception that the pope is trying to re-appropriate a Christian center that fell to Muslims." Apparently making the sign of the cross or any other gesture of Christian worship in Hagia Sophia constitutes such a sacrilege.

Built in the 6th century, Hagia Sophia — Greek for "Holy Wisdom" — was Christendom's greatest and most celebrated church. After parrying centuries of jihadi thrusts from Arabs, Constantinople — now Istanbul — was finally sacked by Turks in 1453, and Hagia Sophia's crosses were desecrated, its icons defaced. Along with thousands of other churches in the Byzantine Empire, it was immediately converted into a mosque, the tall minarets of Islam surrounding it in triumph. Nearly 500 years later, in 1935, as part of reformer Kemal Ataturk's drive to modernize Turkey, Hagia Sophia was secularized and transformed into a museum.

Protests aimed at keeping the pope out of Hagia Sophia rocked Istanbul right up to the morning of his visit to the site. Contrast that intolerance with the tolerance granted Muslims in regard to the Al Aqsa mosque — this time, an Islamic site in Jerusalem annexed by Judaism. Unlike the permanent Muslim desecration of Hagia Sophia, after Israel's victory in the 1967 war, the Jews did not deface or convert the mosque into a Jewish synagogue or temple, even though the Al Aqsa mosque is deliberately built atop the remains of the Temple Mount, the holiest site of Judaism and, by extension, an important site for Christians. Moreover, since reclaiming the Temple Mount, Israel has granted Muslims control over the Al Aqsa mosque (except during times of crises).

All this illustrates the privileged status that many Muslims expect in the international arena. When Muslims conquer non-Muslim territories — such as Constantinople, not to mention all of North Africa, Spain and southwest Asia — those whom they have conquered as well as their descendants are not to expect any apologies, let alone political or territorial concessions.

Herein lies the conundrum. When Islamists wage jihad — past, present and future — conquering and consolidating non-Muslim territories and centers in the name of Islam, never once considering to cede them back to their previous owners, they ultimately demonstrate that they live by the age-old adage "might makes right." That's fine; many people agree with this Hobbesian view.

But if we live in a world where the strong rule and the weak submit, why is it that whenever Muslim regions are conquered, such as in the case of Palestine, the same Islamists who would never concede one inch of Islam's conquests resort to the United Nations and the court of public opinion, demanding justice, restitutions, rights and so forth?

Put another way, when Muslims beat infidels, it's just too bad for the latter; they must submit to their new overlords' rules with all the attendant discrimination and humiliation mandated for non-Muslims. Yet when Islam is beaten, demands for apologies and concessions are expected from the infidel world at large.

Double standards do not make for international justice. Either territorial conquests are always unjust and should therefore be ameliorated through concessions, or else they are merely a manifestation of the natural order of things — that is, survival of the fittest.

If some Muslims wish to wage eternal jihad until Islam dominates the globe, they are only being true to Islam and its doctrines as they understand it. However, in that case, where the world is divided into two warring camps, Islam and Infidelity — or, in Islamic terms, the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War — how can these Muslims expect any concessions from the international community? The natural conclusion of the view that "might makes right" is "to the victor go the spoils."

The fact that Turkey conquered Constantinople more than 500 years ago does not prevent the Turkish government from returning Hagia Sophia to Christendom today, which would undoubtedly be a great gesture. But of course that can never be. The Muslim world would undergo a "paroxysm of fury" if a Christian pope dares pray in the conquered church; what would the Muslim world do if Hagia Sophia were actually converted back to a church?

But perhaps Muslims cannot be blamed for expecting special treatment, as well as believing that jihad is righteous and decreed by the Almighty. The West constantly goes out of its way to confirm such convictions. By criticizing itself, apologizing and offering concessions — all things the Islamic world has yet to do — the West reaffirms that Islam has a privileged status in the world.

And what did the pope do in his controversial visit to Hagia Sophia? He refrained from any gesture that could be misconstrued as Christian worship and merely took in the sights of the museum. Moreover, when he was invited into the Blue Mosque nearby, he respectfully took off his shoes and prayed, eyes downcast, standing next to the the grand mufti of Istanbul like a true dhimmi — a subdued non-Muslim living under Islamic law and acknowledging Islamic superiority.

And therein is the final lesson. Muslims' zeal for their holy places and lands is not intrinsically blameworthy. Indeed, there's something to be said about being passionate and protective of one's own. Here the secular West — Christendom's prodigal son and true usurper — can learn something from Islam. For whenever and wherever the West concedes ideologically, politically and especially spiritually, Islam will be sure to conquer. If might does not make right, zeal apparently does.

Rabbi in Acco: ´What is This, Nazi Germany Here?´Arab marauders smashed up a Talmud Torah in the northern city of Acco (Acre) over the Sabbath, painting Arabic graffiti and swastikas on the walls, destroying furniture, and scattering holy books.

The latest and gravest escalation in the struggle between Jews and Arabs in the mixed city of Acco, between Haifa and the Lebanese border on the Mediterranean coast, occurred this past Friday night. Rabbi Avraham Shushan, a rabbi at the school at which the vandalism occurred, told Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen that a worshiper who arrived for early Sabbath morning prayers was the first to discover the destruction:

"He saw the lights on and the windows broken. He went in and the sight shocked him. All the walls had swastikas, and the Arabic words 'Hamas' and 'Allahu Akbar' [Allah is great]. Destruction all over - it looked like Sodom and Gomorrah. The vandals went into the classrooms, dumped out the equipment, turned over the principal's office, and threw the Torah books in all directions. They took expensive equipment worth thousands of shekels. The worshiper went by foot to the police and called them to come, which they did... He told me about it on Saturday night, and I called Rabbi Yashar, the rabbi of Akko. He came and cried out, 'What is this, Nazi Germany here?'"

Rabbi Shushan said that in his 30 years in the city, he had "never experienced an Arab pogrom like this one... I don't know what's going on here."

Several days ago, a band of Arab youths attacked and cruelly beat a Jewish girl. Six months ago, local Arabs burned trees standing at the entrance to the Talmud Torah, and during the recent Simchat Torah holiday, Arabs surrounded students from the local Yeshivat Hesder [who combine Torah study and army service] and threatened them, until one student was forced to fire in the air to disperse them.

Knesset Members of the National Religious Party-National Union visited Acco a month ago, warning of the deterioration in the city. The police claimed at the time that the violence and clashes were of a criminal, not nationalistic nature."

When we toured the city a month ago," MK Uri Ariel said today, "it was claimed that we are provocateurs and looking for trouble. This pogrom in the Talmud Torah proves that the bitter reality is that in the year 2006, anti-Semitic pogroms take place in sovereign Israel. The police in Acco must give an accounting as to how it is that Arab rioters feel free enough to carry out such a despicable act. We won't allow the police to evade its responsibility."

"We have no illusions," Ariel said. "We know what the Arabs are trying to do. They have composed a new Declaration of Independence, and they want to change the [Israeli] flag and anthem. The Arab citizens understand the trend, and they go out and paint swastikas in yeshivot."

In another city with a large Arab population, Ramle (near Tel Aviv), an Arab organization is renewing its activities for more say in city affairs - and is hoping to similarly encourage Arab populations in other mixed cities such as Jaffa and Lod as well.

Just this past Friday, the Israeli-Arab organization Mossawa presented a position paper demanding recognition as a Palestinian-Arab national minority and the right to return to Arab villages abandoned during the 1948 War of Independence. In what some view as a drive to turn Israel into a bi-national state, Mossawa also demands:* Allotments for immigration and citizenship* Educational and religious autonomy* Changes to the Israeli flag and national anthem* Appropriate representation in national bodies* Special division of national resources* Ties with other Arab countries